Come February, the Jharkhand government will launch a mobile academy, funded by the Union health ministry, to provide refresher courses to the state's accredited social health activists (ASHA) in maternal and child healthcare and institutional delivery through recorded audio messages.

The training course will be coordinated by the state health mission society. "It will be a 11-point programme on maternal and child health through audio messages. On completion of the coure, the workers will get a certificate from the health department," Akai Minj, the state coordinator for community mobilization cell, said on Sunday.

The mobile academy is one of the four outreach programmes launched by the Union health ministry on January 15.

Collectively known as the mobile health services, the other three include Kilkari project, which aims to give time-bound audio-recorded directions to pregnant mothers directly through phone and mobile cessation and tuberculosis missed called initiatives. The other three programmes will be launched in a phased manner.

Jharkhand will be among the first four states to roll out the programme, the other three being Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Padesh. Aimed at improving family health, the initiative is a part of the Digital India programme.

Elaborating on the program, Minj said the mobile academy will save time and effort in training methods. "They will not have to come for training to Ranchi and remain on the field. A call centre will be set up to answer their queries," she added.

Though Jharkhand has attained the UN millennium development goals as far as infant mortality rate is concerned, maternal mortality rate (MMR) is still high in the state(208 per lakh live births against national average of 167) the health department admits. Besides MMR, under five mortality rate is also higher than the national average.